The citywide daytime curfew, meant to keep students in school between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays when school is in session, would not change.

In a memo to the mayor and council, the city staff said juvenile arrests as a percentage of all arrests have dropped from 12 percent before the curfew was adopted in 1990 to about 7 percent.

Austin police issue more than half of the curfew violation citations during daytime hours.

Debbie Russell, president of the Central Texas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she supports the effort to standardize the nighttime curfew citywide but wants the city to abolish the daytime curfew.

She said state laws that took effect Sept. 1 allowing police to take students back to school when they are caught skipping already do enough.

Seeking a new tool to fight chronic truancy, school superintendents and the city of Redding have drawn up a plan to extend the long-existing nighttime curfew for children and teenagers to weekdays.

When school’s in session, youths who haven’t graduated or don’t have a good reason for not being in class will be subject to tickets — with fines ranging up to $250 and 20 hours of community service. Their parents, after repeated warnings, could face misdemeanor criminal charges.

West York recently established a daytime curfew, which requires those younger than 18 to stay out of public areas when they are supposed to be in school.

The law allows children to be out with permission from their school or, in the case of homeschoolers, their parents, so Gay’s children were not actually breaking the law.

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Northern York County Regional Police Chief Carl Segatti said parents have no reason to worry about the daytime curfew. Police already have the right to stop young people and find out whether they should be in school. If necessary, they call a child’s school or parent to check.

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What a daytime curfew does is let police decide whether to charge someone for being out of school. The current truancy law leaves that decision up to school authorities, Segatti said.

I still wonder what happens to the juvenile crime rate over school breaks and summer vacation.